Lean Times Descend On Cattle Country

July 16, 1986|By Molly R. Parrish, Editorial Research Reports

WASHINGTON — Beset by the changing dietary habits of American consumers and a host of other problems in common with farmers generally, the cattle business is in a slump from which some analysts say it may never completely recover.

An expected rebuilding of the cattle herds failed to materialize this year. With profits still down, cattle raisers continue to reduce their stock. For many of them it is a matter of cutting back or going out of business altogether.

Some farm analysts predict that herd reduction, now in its fourth year, will continue for two more years. The number of beef cattle shrank from 132 million head in 1975 to 111 million in 1980, and on down to 105.5 million early this year at the U.S. Agricultural Department's latest annual count.

Jens Knutson, an economist for the American Meat Institute, predicts that the U.S. beef cattle population will drop below 100 million head before a turnaround occurs. Some agricultural economists speak of a rebound in two years but few of them think the recovery will put as many cattle in the pastures and feedlots as in the heyday of the middle 1970s.

Americans still eat more beef that any other meat but not as much as they once did. On average, each person ate 79.1 pounds of beef last year, a slight increase from 1984, but well below the 1976 average of 94.4 pounds.

Much of the drop in consumption is attributed to a new health consciousness and evidence linking diets high in animal fat with heart disease and cancer. Changes in family structure and work habits also are causing Americans to eat less beef, analysts say. One-parent families and those with a working husband and wife are turning more to convenience foods that can be prepared quickly. Some meatpackers are experimenting with packaged ''convenience'' meats, using brand names and supplying recipes and nutritional information with the packaged product to make beef more attractive to the buyer.

The beef industry is trying to cater to consumer taste by making changes in breeding, promotion and marketing. Cattlemen are breeding leaner cattle, and packers and retailers are trimming much of the fat off the meat before it is displayed in the supermarket.

John Hugh Winn, an agricultural economist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is one who foresees a trend toward the breeding of ''better, more efficient cattle'' that produce leaner meat.